Thursday, May 29, 2008

Wow! If you haven’t stopped by Kits2Remember lately, there is definitely some new stuff to see! Are you ready to do some weekend shopping? Be sure to check out these new products in the K2R store:

• Krew Kits 4 and 5 are available! Both are fun, flirty, girly! The K2R Design Krew is already abuzz with what they are going to create with them this month! I have already created several projects with them:

The Projects Below were "Kreated" with Krew Kit # 4. I just added all the liquids (like paint) and brads:

Family Album

Inside the Family Album (notice the stamped flowers - the foam stamps come with the kit!)

The flower is on the chart with a magnet (included in the kit!), so the flower dangles and the panel reads "Chores I have not yet done" until the end of the day when the flower announces that the day's chores are DONE!

• New project kits have hit the “shelves!” Honor the fathers in your life with the “Father Knows Best” acrylic album kit – order now and have it ready by Father’s Day! Plus, get into the patriotic spirit with “My Travelog of the 50 States,” which features an acrylic album with a die cut flag front cover."Father Knows Best" featuring the Basic Grey "Boxer" line"My Travelog of the 50 States"

• The Round-it-All is here! The PINK Round-it-All, the one that make a wide corner, at ½-inch, is now in stock for $19.99. The BLUE Round-it-All, with a tighter corner, at ¼-inch should arrive soon. Quantities are limited, so order now!• If you fell in love with the Your Pictured Memories’ PullEz ribbon purse, you are gonna LOVE it’s Mother! This HUGE ribbon purse is my new favorite organizational tool and can fit more than four times as much ribbon as the original. There are only two available, so get your order in fast!

• For those of you who gave our metal sheets a try, we now have magnets to go with them! These are 1-inch in diameter, ¼-inch thick and can be dressed up beautifully to match your message board!

• New shaped acrylic albums by Apple Pie Memories! You may know Apple Pie as the supplier of rubber stamping blocks, but they have expanded their line to include shaped albums, as well. K2R has two of them: The 6 ¾-inch flower album and the 5 x 7 Recipe book (the word "recipes" is laser cut right into the album!) and refill pages. Be sure to take a look at the samples on my blog!As for other news, we’ve got lots of that, too!

• Free shipping! Our K2R Deal of the Day is free shipping on orders of $85 or more. Be sure to check out the K2R home page for details.• See you in Texas! My Mom and I will start driving to Arlington Texas on Monday for the Great American Scrapbook Convention there. We’ve got some great volunteers lined up to help out with the make and take, and in the classroom, so everything runs smoothly. Take a look at our calendar and see what classes and events may be coming up near you!• Three instructional videos are now available at K2R! The FREE introductory Bind-it-All video is on the Kits2Remember Tips and Tricks page., so be sure to check that out. Then, when you order the “1973” Stadium album kit or the “Egg Dye” album kit, you will get web site links to videos with those projects, as well. The “1973” video walks you through tips and techniques for designing with acrylic, as well as the project itself. The “Egg Dye” video takes it a step further and shows you some basic ways to use the new Crop-a-Dile II.• Need some fresh, new project ideas? There are lots of places on K2R to look. First, the K2R Project Ideas page has lots of them, archived by size, shape and medium. Then, stop on by the Design Krew blog to see how five gals can take the same kit and make dozens of different projects. Check back often because the site and/or blogs are updated almost daily! Plus, you never know when a RAK might be announced!Use the K2R acrylic circles or the Clear Scraps round albums to create great sports books for that special athlete! On this one I used white acrylic paint dabber, Frosted Lace Stickles for a shiny look, and Magic Mesh for texture. I painted the stitching on with red acrylic paint and a thin brush. Want your paint, ink and Stickles to dry faster? Take a hairdryer to it! Be sure to keep the dryer's nozzle at least 12-18 inches away fromt he album!• Have questions? Need answers? Check out the K2R Message Board. A Krew member is always staffing the board and eager to answer any questions you may have about scrapbooking. Be sure to read the informational posts by accessing the message board from the K2R home page!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

I have finally bested my technology woes and have managed to get an instructional video on my web site! For those of you who would like a helpful 20-minute tutorial on the Bind-it-All and its capabilities, take a look on the Kits2Remember Tips & Tricks page. Please bear with ,me, as this is my first attempt at a video, staged in my kitchen and filmed by my DH. If you have any suggestions, or see any major problems, please email me: jessica@kits2remember.com!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

This is pretty scray for anyone who has published their work on the Internet ... if this bill passes it could become public domain, rgardless of copyright. Please take a moment to learn more about the bill (Googling it brings up lots of info) and if you find that you oppose it, this site makes it easy to email a letter of opposition to your state senators and members of congress.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

We have a few new project kits in stock now, each with a different technique and skill set to learn! Some of them will even include links to instructional videos that will be released soon. Take a look for the details about each kit below:

"1973"This project was released last week and we've had several fly out the door. We do have about a dozen kits left, so if you are interested in learning more about acrylic, stadium albums and tips and tricks I used to complete this project, be sure to order the kit right away. This is the first kit to feature an instructional web video, which will be available at the web site listed in the kit by June 1.

This fun, fast album can be created for any number of themes. I happened to use it for pictures of my boys coloring Easter eggs with my parents. While we will discuss a few points of interest about acrylic and different ways to punch and bind it, we will be mostly talking about the Crop-a-Dile II Big Bite and it's features. This is the second video K2R plans to release, no later than June 15. If you have purchased the CaD II, or are thinking about it, this is one project you'll want to cut your Big Bite teeth into!

"Family Memories" Vertical 8-inch stadium albumTurn your acrylic stadium album on it's side for a completely new and different layered look! This fun project includes papers and embellishments perfect for family photos, reunions, weddings or anniversaries. I chose to feature pictures of my family in the 1970s and 1980s. What decades would you like to feature? This timeless, yet unique, design would make a beautiful gift and can be finished in an afternoon! Full color, step-by-step instructions will be available online, with the web address will be inside the kit.

"7-year (furniture) Itch"

We still have Krew Kit #3 available. I used my kit to create this mini book about the new furniture the DH and I recently purchased - the only major furniture purchases we have made for ourselves since we got married in November 2000. I used my own Basic Grey acrylic stamps (after priming them by running a pencil eraser along the surface of the image!) and Heidi Swapp foam stamps to add visual texture to the album. And I still have a ton of product left over to make my Dad some thing for Father's Day (hope he's not reading this!).

He got his scissors in the mail ... my DH and Director of Operations is Fiaskateer #3633, about 3,000 Fiskateers away from my #743. It's amazing how fast the Fiskars grass roots share-the-love-of crafting group has grown! Not a Fiskateer yet? Why not? It's free and fun! Log on to www.fiskateers.com to find out more.

Thank you to all of you who wished us well on our Pensacola house hunt. Here are some photos of it. We are really excited about it. Personally, the fact that it has four bedrooms AND a studio office sold me! Not to mention the big backyard (with room for my K2R trailer and an air-conditioned storage building for product! Yes!), spa, formal dining room.

My studio office! I plan to put in some French doors to keep the outside noise pollution down.My storage shed for product.The front of the house. The windows from left to right are the dining room, office and guest room for when the grandmas come out to see the boys.The kitchen (where I really don't plan to spend a lot of time - Saying I hate to cook is a little strong, so I'll say I prefer not to.) The doorway leads out to the living room, complete with lighted plant ledges and fireplace, and the Florida room. A Florida room, I learned, is an Arizona room, sun room, enclosed porch, whatever you call it in the area where you live. While some are just a basic screened-in porches, this one is walled, windowed, just another room of the house, heated and cooled.

Pensacola seems like a nice place to live with all the modern conveniences (the "new" mall has all the important stores, such as Children's Place and Bath & Body Works), but the bummer for me, though, is that I can't find one local scrapbook store in the entire city. One looks recently closed, unfortunately. There is a Michaels, JoAnns and Hobby Lobby, but, as much great as those places can be to shop, they just don't replace the fun, crops and community of an LSS. Maybe one will turn up in a nearby town. Or, I may be taking lots of trips too and from Mobile, Alabama, which is an hour away. Plus, I will be commuting back and forth to California, too, so I guess I can get my LSS fix when I am there!

Monday, May 19, 2008

We have our acrylic circles back in stock, plus we have a new size. So, you can find 4-, 5- and 8-inch acrylic circles here.

And speaking of new sizes, we now have three new sizes of acrylic panels available for your creative pleasure: 6 x 8, 5 x 7 and 3 x 4 (perfect for those cute calendar squares in Theresa Collins' new line, "Journal-It."). Check out these fun new sizes here.

I dropped by the Zutter Innovative Products' home store today (Bind-it-All manufacturer) and bought one of the first Round-it-Alls released. The pink ones (1/2-inch or R10 size) are the only ones currently available, but rumor has it that the blue ones (1/4-inch or R5 size) will be in next week. It will take some time for them to arrive here at K2R, but as soon as they do, I'll let you know. About the size of a small stapler, the Round-it-All smoothly and easily corner rounded chipboard and the K2R acrylic, but stopped short of going through the K2R metal panels. If you are a corner-rounding fool like I am, this is one tool you will want to have in your stash. I think I will own both sizes so I can more closely match other products that might already be rounded.

The Kim who posted the comment about completing two acrylic albums is the winner of this month's RAK! She will get a FREE acrylic stadium album shipped to her door! Congrats, and be sure to email me ASAP at jessica@kits2remember.com, with your postal address and phone number! Congrats and thank you for posting!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

The above classes are:"Father Knows Best" for Father's Day, "Caught on Film," which is a great sports year recap album, or generic enough for just about anything, and an Americana "My Travelog of the 50 States."

Friday, May 16, 2008

Busy, busy, busy ... K2R has a busy month or so starting in about a week, so be sure to stop by our calendar to see if we will be at a store or event near you. The last weekend in May has K2R pulling double duty:

The first is non-profit organization Scrapbook Royalty's "From the Heart" Charity Crop that will benefit the Tyree family, whose father passed unexpectedly this past fall and are now facing tough times financially. The Red Bee in Tustin is hosting the event and K2R has donated some 12 x 12 acrylic home decor projects for a class exclusive to the "From the Heart" croppers. Liz Hernandez, of Memoriez by Liz, has been kind enough to volunteer her ti,me to teach the class. For more information, or to register, log on the Scrapbook Royalty web page and crop for a good cause!

Laura Miller is hosting yet another one of her popular Desert Scrappers Weekend Retreats in the Palm Springs area that same weekend. Jessica will be on hand, vending, and teaching an acrylic album class. Log on the the Desert Scrappers web site or blog for details!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

We're still house hunting in Florida, but I think the hunt is nearly complete ... we've put a bid on a lovely home and are keeping our fingers crossed!

Meanwhile, new product has hit the K2R "shelves!" Here are the details:

K2R now has punchable metal sheets, perfect for albums and message boards! These are a great new media that are easily punched with the Crop-a-dile and Bind-it-All! Take a look here for metal project ideas!

A new project kit, "1973" a 7-panel, 6-inch-tall acrylic stadium album kit is also up, only this one is introducing a great new feature that K2R will offer with some of its projects. I will release an instructional web video on June 1, explaining how I completed the project, giving helpful hints about techniques I used, and sharing tips about using acrylic and stadium albums. Purchase the kit now and have it in plenty of time for the June 1 video release!

And there is still time to shop and enjoy the "Check is in the Mail" Sale! Use promo code check10 for additional savings! Sale ends Saturday!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

OK, I am, a big sucker for those stuffed animal claw games... you know, those ones that sometimes don't clamp strongly enough, so the toy just slips out of the claw, no matter how good your geometry and physics skills are? OK, well, my DH took me the Seville Quarter, a bar in downtown Pensacola, to play pool with a buddy of his he hadn't seen in awhile. Letting boys be boys, I played one game of pool (quite terribly, since I am incredibly out of practice, thanks to the time spent as a mother and scrapbooking), so I sat out and let the boys take over the table. I spotted the lobster game across the room and just HAD to play ... while you win a lobster dinner if you "fish" one out, I wasn't in it for the meal. I just loved the concept of clawing for lobster!But at $2 a shot, it would be easy to spend way more than a lobster dinner would cost. And I think I did. I know I spent at least $20, but then I lost count a few turns after that. It was just so much fun chasing the little suckers around the tank! I finally managed to get a hold of a calm one, one who didn't appear to want to fight and squirt his way out of the claw before I could get him over the chute. I held my breath as the claw slowly pulled him out of the water and started to take him over to the corner chute. About half way there I started screaming across the back half of the bar for my DH: "Rodney! Rodney! I got a lobster! I got a lobster!"Clunk! The claw dropped the crustacean down the chute. And then came the interesting the part: Figuring out what to do next. There wasn't a big sign that said "open here" or anything, to get the lobster out. So I pushed around the front of the machine until I found the sliding door. The poor thing was upside down on his head! Now I was starting to feel guilty. I started to reach inside the chute for it. One girl who had been playing pool at a table near us leaned her head down beside me and said, "Ew! Don't touch it!" I paused mid-grab, and looked at her - "Why not?" Maybe she knew something about live lobsters that I didn't. They are poisonous, they have slick residue that gives you a rash, they can bust through their claw rubber bands ... what? "It's just gross, don't touch it." Gee, thanks, hon. Ignoring the ninny, I reached into the chute and grabbed the poor creature, holding him upright as I gazed at his face. His eyeballs were moving around, probably gazing feverishly into my face, wondering about my intentions. That guilt thing got a little worse ... but the fierce satisfaction of having snared a lobster took over. "I won a lobster! I won a lobster!" By then, the DH showed up with his friend to admire my fine catch."You can't keep it. We're NOT keeping it," he said, obviously used to my strong desire to bring needy creatures home.Someone in the small crowd gathered around me said, "No, dude, you don't keep it, you eat it."Then the scrapbooker in me managed to rise to the surface. "Oh! I don't have my camera. I didn't bring my big purse!" (I had brought a smaller one for adult going-out night purposes only. The Mom Purse that I had left at the hotel room had the camera in it.) So, with my free hand, I fumbled on my belt loop for my cell phone."Here, take my picture. Quick. I want to get him back into the water."The picture was taken, the waitress, followed by the lobster tank key man, came by and I dropped the lobster back into the tank. I was issued a certificate for a free lobster dinner, but I don't think I will redeem it. That certificate is SO scrapbookable! Then, I looked back into the tank. One of my lobster's buddies had left a small corner pile of his lobster friends and, lo and behold, had a $10 bill stuffed under one of his claw rubber bands. Oh, yeah! Now I know what my goal is for the next time I happen to be at Seville Quarter ... lobster AND my money back!

Friday, May 09, 2008

If you are in SoCal and want a day-long scrapbook education event, this is it! After a couple-year hiatus, Strictly Scrapbooking is bringing in a number of local stores and manufacturers to put on a fabulous education-focused event! Kits2Remember has plans to be there, teaching a class or two! Registration has started, so click here for more information or to register! This is an event you definitely won't want to miss, so book your reservation today!

Thursday, May 08, 2008

There is a lot going on here at Kits2Remember! Here are some of the highlights:

1)Now through May 17, K2R is having a “Check is in the Mail Sale,” discounting dozens of kits, products and more, up to 30 percent off! Be sure to check all of our kits, Tools Sections (Crop-a-dile tools and accessories are 30 percent off!) and some of your favorite products to see what deals and steals you can find! Plus, to make your money stretch even further, use promo code “check10” for an additional 10 percent off your entire order! A lot of these products and kits are limited in availability (for instance, we only have one each left of the “SPRING” wall hanging kit and “Why I Love You Expo Mini Book Kit!), so while the sale goes on through next week, prices are only good on product in stock!2)K2R is going house-hunting in Florida next week! Orders placed by noon PST Saturday May 10 will ship Monday, May 12. Orders placed after that will ship Monday, May 19.3)Thinking about going to Creating Keepsakes University in Provo UT this August? Take the bus! Find out more here: www.ckubustour.com4)K2R will be at the Great American Scrapbook Convention in June! We need volunteers to assist us in our booth and classroom. If you are interested in earning some goodies, don’t mind donating a few hours of your time and live in the area, please email me for more information: Jessica@kits2remember.com5)Have you stopped by the K2R Design Krew blog lately? They have been hard at work on all sorts of projects! We have eight Krew Kit #2’s left and have just released #3, so be sure to check the blog to see what the Krew has come up with!6)The new Rouge de Garance line from Sandylion is in and I just love it! I had to play with it right away, so I made a beach album with the Fleur line for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day (check out my blog to see it: www.jessicaguthrie.blogspot.com. The vivid colors are amazing and the quality of the line is just fabulous. The rub-ons are high-quality, the stickers are almost cardstock thick, bright and blingy and the papers are thick and double-sided, so with the six papers that make up the line, you get 12 completely different patterns to play with! I have packaged 12 sheets of paper (two of each type), stickers and ribbon together to sell these as paper and embellishment packs. You get a sampling of the whole line! Then if you love rub-ons, add them on to your order. Order now, because I only have 11 of the paper/embellishment packs in each design and five of each of the rub-on packages! These will sell out fast!7)Keep an eye on the K2R calendar, as well to see if we will be at a store or event near you! With Father’s Day, graduations and summer coming up, there are plenty of reason to take a class and create a new project!8)New projects and mini-albums are being “kitted” right now, so come back often to see what’s new!9)If you made it this far, you deserve something special! Post a comment to my blog on any post made May 8 and after, and you will have your name put into a drawing for a RAK: An 8-inch acrylic stadium album shipped right to your door! You have now until May 17 to comment, one comment eligible per day! Have fun and thanks for reading!

This is the new Rouge de Garance line from Sandylion and I just love it! I had to play with it right away, so I made this beach album with the Fleur line for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day (hopefully she's not reading this post!). The vivid colors are amazing and the quality of the line is fabulous. The rub-ons are high-quality, the stickers are almost cardstock thick, bright and blingy and the papers (ooo, that new paper smell!) are thick and double-sided, so with the six papers that make up the line, you get 12 completely different patterns to play with! I have packaged 12 sheets of paper (two of each type), stickers and ribbon together to sell these as paper and embellishment packs. You get a sampling of the whole line! Then if you love rub-ons, add them on to your order. Order now, because I only have 11 of the paper/embellishment packs in each design and five of each of the rub on packages! These will sell out fast!

Monday, May 05, 2008

On Saturday, I looked out on my front doorstep to find a fun little package from an address I hadn't ordered K2R product from. I opened it up to find this great toiletry set. Inside, my Secret Sister had apologized profusely for not reading my profile more thoroughly and seeing that I was not a big fan of the color pink. She had sent me the set - in Creative Escape signature colors, of course - anyway, and I am so glad she did! Adorned with a pretty silk flower and a "fabulous" Heidi Swapp acrylic stamp, how could I refuse a gift as "fabulous" as this? Thanks, Secret Sister!

So, where did this "tenacious" description come from?

Since college, whenever a male supervisor or colleague disagreed with me, the (printable) description that seemed to be used the most often to describe me was "tenacious." I found it odd that completely unrelated people would come to the same conclusion on multiple occasions over the course of a decade. The word choice was not meant as a compliment and I still have no idea why. In my opinion, tenacity is a delightful thing to have (see the definition above) and I am happy to have it. So, to conclude this correspondence, I sign off with: